Animal agriculture and fossil fuels are devastating our planet. We need to take drastic and immediate action. This year and decade are crucial if we are going to stop runaway climate chaos with areas of the world too hot to live in, with disease vectors spreading, ecological and agricultural systems breaking down and possibly leading to mass starvation, and more frequent and severe extreme weather events from hurricanes, floods, forest fires to droughts and sea level rise.

Animal agriculture is a leading source of climate chaos, generating more greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide) than all cars, trucks, planes, ships and other transportation modes combined and responsible for critical land use changes: deforesting the world to produce animal feed.

According to the UN Environment Programme, the Earth is in the midst of a mass extinction of life. Scientists estimate that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become extinct every 24 hours. This is nearly 1,000 times the “natural” or “background” rate and, say many biologists, is greater than anything the world has experienced since the vanishing of the dinosaurs nearly 65m years ago.

Animal agriculture generates 51% or more of greenhouse gas emissions according to World Watch Institute. This figure includes all aspects of animal agriculture such as transportation of animals and related industries. The 14% Food and Agricultural Organization figure only includes limited aspects of animal agriculture such as raising animals for food.

Methane comes from cows, and is 70 times more damaging to our air than CO2 emissions. Nitrous oxide also comes from animal agriculture, and from the burning of fossil fuels. An article published on Ecowatch says,